Algimantas Salna

Algimantas Salna
Full name	Algimantas Ionowitsch Šalna Альгимантас Ионович Шална
Association	Soviet Union Lithuania
birthday	September 12, 1959
place of birth	Vidiškės,  Soviet Union
Career
job	Biathlon coach
society	Dynamo Kaunas
Trainer	Albertas Jakubauskas
Debut in the World Cup	1981
World Cup victories	5 (including 1 season)
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 2 × 0 × 0 × Championships of the USSR 2 × ? × ? ×
winter Olympics gold 1984 Sarajevo Season  Biathlon world championships gold 1983 Antholz Season gold 1985 Ruhpolding Season USSR championships gold 1983 singles gold 1983 Season
World Cup balance
Overall World Cup	15. 1984/85
Podium placements 1. 2. 3. singles 1 ? ? sprint 3 2 ? Season 1 ? ?
last change: at the end of your career, incomplete

Algimantas salna ( Russian Альгимантас Ионович Шална transcribed Algimantas Ionowitsch Schalna * 12. September 1959 in Vidiškės , Rajon Ignalina , Utena District , former Lithuanian SSR of the Soviet Union ) is a former Lithuanian -sowjetischer biathlete and the first Olympic champion in the Olympic Winter Games from Lithuania.

Algimantas Šalna initially started for Žalgiris Kaunas , from 1984 for Dynamo Kaunas. At competition times he weighed 75 kg and was 1.81 m tall. He won three major international titles, all in relay competitions, and won a medal in an individual race. He won his first title at the biathlon world championships in 1983 in Antholz , he became world champion in the 4 × 7.5 km relay together with Sergei Bulygin , Yuri Kaschkarow and Pyotr Miloradow . In the individual he reached seventh place over 20 km, this remained his best individual placement at the Biathlon World Championships .

At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Šalna crowned his career with an Olympic victory in the relay. In the line-up with Dmitri Wassiljew , Juri Kaschkarow, Šalna and Sergei Bulygin, the USSR won ahead of Norway and the Federal Republic of Germany. After the second section, the Soviets led by 26 seconds, but Šalna had to go into the penalty loop twice and handed over to last runner Bulygin, almost 20 seconds behind the East German relay, but the Soviet relay still won. His Olympic victory meant the first ever medal win at the Olympic Winter Games for an athlete from Lithuania. In the sprint over 10 km he was fifth in the victory of the Norwegian Eirik Kvalfoss ahead of Peter Angerer , Matthias Jacob and Kjell Søbak , making him the best starter of the Soviet team. He had two missed shots - like Kvalfoss - and was almost 30 seconds behind the winner in the end, he was not used in the 20 km competition.

He won his second world title in 1985 in Ruhpolding , this time in the line-up of Kaschkarow, Šalna, Andrei Senkow and Bulygin as the final runner. After that, he was not used again in a Soviet relay and was not included for the 1988 Olympic Games. He was also successful in the World Cup , in the 1982/83 season he achieved three individual and one relay victories , and in the following season another victory in the sprint.

Šalna won the Soviet championships in 1983 in both the individual and the relay. In 1984 he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR and was awarded the Order of Honor of the Soviet Union . Šalna completed training at the State Institute for Physical Culture ( ГИФК Государственной институт физической культуры ) in Kaunas as a trainer instructor . After the end of his active career, Šalna became a biathlon coach. First he coached women's teams in the USSR and was able to win the national championship there. In 1991 he accepted an engagement in the USA and became the head coach of the national team. He coached the American biathlon Olympic team from 1992 to 2006.

Šalna is married and has a daughter and a son. His son Tautvydas Šalna is an ice hockey player and took part in the 2010 Olympic qualification with the Lithuanian national team.

Web links

• Algimantas Šalna in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Algimantas Šalna in the infosport.ru database (Russian)
• Algimantas Šalna in the IBU database (English)
• Film portrait "I wanted to be the best" about Algimantas Šalna at the LRT (Lithuanian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Algimantas Šalna: Norėjau būti geriausias ( Lithuanian ) lrt.lt. Accessed December 30, 2019.
2. ↑ Часть вторая ( Russian ) www.sports.ru. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Бойцов К. (K. Bojizow): Аликин вызвал огонь на себя ( Russian ) "Советский спорт" - www.sovsport.ru. February 24, 2009. Archived from the original on March 12, 2017. Retrieved on December 29, 2019.
4. ↑ Tautvydas Šalna ( English ) Elite Prospects. Accessed December 30, 2019.